This invention relates to producing digital colored prints from scanned original film by a particular printer.
Digital colored images are often produced by electronic still cameras. They include an image sensor which has appropriate color filters. Analog signals are converted into digital signals and digital images are produced which are often called a digital file. There are many storage devices on which these digital images can be stored, including floppy magnetic discs, hard magnetic disc drives, optical discs including write once discs, digital tape, and flash cards. Oftentimes, a user will capture digital images on a digital camera and store them on a storage device. These images may later be downloaded to a host computer and printed using a local printer, such as a color inkjet printer, or sent via the internet to a remote printing service.
In another approach to providing digital colored images, a photographic film is scanned, digitized and converted to a digital file for each image. The Kodak PhotoCD(trademark) system is an example of one such arrangement for scanning, digitizing, and providing a digital file for each image. Often, a user will have a service that will scan and digitize images to provide a digital file. These files are provided on memory storage media, such as a Kodak PhotoCD disc. A user may also purchase software programs or applications which will operate on these image files. These applications permit the customer to access, view, modify, and/or print the image files as desired. Adobe Photoshop(trademark) is an example of software that can operate on digital image files to drive a printer for producing output images. The application that operate on the images to produce prints, such as Photoshop, are provided separately, rather than on the same PhotoCD disc that stores a customer""s film images. As a result, it is difficult for an unskilled user to load the appropriate software into their host computer, launch the application (e.g. Photoshop) and then open the desired images from the PhotoCD, one at a time, in order to select and print images on their home printer.
A problem with many home printing arrangements is that they often require operator adjustment and that they are cumbersome and can take a significant amount of time. One reason for this is that there are a number of different printers and papers that can be used. In order to couple a printer to a stored color digital image, enabling software must be provided. High quality printers typically have a pull down or displayed menu which permits a user to select a particular type of printer transform to produce a print. For example, when Adobe Photoshop software is used to drive an Epson Stylus Photo Ink Jet Printer, the Epson printer has a number of user selectable modes such as Photo, Photoenhance, Graph, Text, and Advanced Photo, but these modes must be selected by the user. These can be used by skilled users to provide improved printing of continuous tone images from digital files made from scanning film negatives, such as from PhotoCD. However, the modes do not provide the best possible prints, since they do not take into account the print paper that is used. Furthermore, since a xe2x80x9cPhotoxe2x80x9d mode is not automatically selected when a PhotoCD image is to be printed, an unskilled user may inadvertently use an undesirable mode, such as xe2x80x9ctextxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cgraphxe2x80x9d, when printing the continuous tone images, thus producing poor quality prints.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an effective way of producing high quality digital colored prints from digital images captured on film.
Another object of this invention is to produce high quality digital customized colored prints with a minimum of operator intervention by selecting the appropriate printer mode of operation.
Another object is to provide an arrangement that makes it possibly for a new computer user to simply and easily view their personal digital images on a home computer, select desired images for printing, and produce the best possible prints on their home printer.
These objects are achieved by a method of providing colored adjusted digital files which can be used to make prints by a printing system, including a computer and a local printer, controlled by enabling software stored on the removable storage medium, the original images being provided on colored film, comprising the steps of:
a) scanning the colored film to produce a plurality of digital files representing colored digital images;
b) adjusting the digital files to produce color adjusted digital files, such adjustments including tone scale correction;
c) providing enabling software including at least one software application program for operating the computer that enables the color adjusted digital files to be printed on the local printer, and
c) transferring the color adjusted digital files and the enabling software to the removable storage medium.
The present invention can consistently produce high quality colored digitally produced prints from scanned film. At least two major steps are used. The scanned digital image is color adjusted prior to being transferred to a storage medium. It is stored along with enabling printing software. Thereafter, the color adjusted digital image is transformed so that it is customized to work with a particular printer.
An advantage of the present invention is that by color managing the digital image at or after scanning and then storing the image with enabling software on a medium and thereafter transforming the digital image to be consistent with a particular printer, a high quality colored digital print image is produced. It has been determined that it is necessary to first color adjust the digital image and then transform it for printing. By storing both the printing enabling software and the color adjusted digital image on the same medium, such as a magnetic disc, optical disc, or a flash memory card, users can conveniently make colored prints which are aesthetically pleasing. The present invention eliminates the need for operator adjustments and provides a way that a user can rapidly store colored digital images and then convert those stored colored digital images to aesthetically pleasing prints directly. In accordance with the present invention, the printer mode may be automatically selected so that it is able to produce a print which provides the best photographic rendition.